


To Know Everything

by Skittery



Series: Kiss Prompts [1]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, kiss drabbles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 04:54:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2375351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skittery/pseuds/Skittery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt: forehead kiss</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Know Everything

The thoughts flying through Jack Kelly's mind as he lay looking out at the predawn sky begin to show tinges of color were unusual. He wasn't thinking about the day to come, or the headlines, or the food he hadn't managed to scrounge up for last night's dinner; he wasn't thinking of his parents, long gone, or his empty childhood, or his eventual escape from the bars and chains of the city; he wasn't thinking of himself at all. 

Jack's thoughts were only of him, the boy lying next to him, for the millionth time, for what felt like the first time, for what was the first time since everything had changed and he had turned Jack Kelly's world on its head, throwing everything miraculously out of order into a beautiful, languorous chaos. Jack watched him sleep curled into half a parentheses, his head cradled against Jack's collarbone and his arm wrapped loosely over Jack's chest. 

Jack was used to feeling protective of the boys, but this wasn't the same. He didn't just want to protect, he wanted to know. To know everything about him, all of his thoughts and hopes and dreams and hates, to be able to feel what he felt and see the world as he saw it, to become as close to him as possible, as close as one person could get to another while still retaining that semblance of self that made them two each who they were, as they had been before.

Jack wanted to know which streets he'd walked on, which spots his feet had touched, which bricks or iron railings his fingertips had grazed as he passed by the buildings, which steps or benches or curbs he'd paused to rest on;places touched in infinitesimally small ways by his presence but touched nonetheless, a part of the story that was him and his. 

Jack wanted to taste every liquid he'd ever imbibed, and every food he'd ever enjoyed. Jack wanted to touch every piece of clothing that had ever been draped lovingly or casually over his skin, to walk in every holey shoe he'd ever worn. Jack wanted to feel the hard, necessary presence of the roughly hewn crutch under his arm, to know how it felt to be reliant on something the way he felt he could become reliant on him.

Jack wanted to know if his pulse sped up when they were near each other, if his vision blurred, if he felt out of breath or completely calm; if his hands itched to reach out and touch or if they shook with nervous energy; if he felt it burning in his stomach or his chest or all throughout his skin. Jack wanted to know how his own reactions, his own nerves and shallow breathing and sweaty palms that still yearned for contact, the burning through his torso, compared. 

Jack wanted to know all of the things that made his eyes light up, that brought the smile of sunlight and warmth and promise across his face, that sent a silent thrill up his spine; and he wanted to know all of the things that made him cry, that pushed him to his breaking point and brought a shade of draping hopelessness; the nightmares and the dreams and the just before waking phantasms that blew across his mind.

Jack wanted all of this like he'd never wanted anything else, even though they'd known each other for years, even though they'd shared so much of their lives already; it was like being next to a stranger he'd known all his life, comfortable but with so much possibility, open ended and thrilling.

Jack sighed into the breaking light, pink and blue and gold spreading above them like a painting he'd dreamed up, only this was real.

Beside him, Crutchie stirred and nuzzled into Jack's neck sleepily. He opened his eyes into slits and looked up at Jack, smiling as he slowly moved towards waking. Jack looked back at him, not unsmiling, but serious, full of emotions he didn't often show.

"What're you thinkin'bout?" Crutchie asked thickly, nuzzling against Jack's collarbone again. 

Jack smiled, and even though he was thinking about what had become the most important things, what was becoming his everything, he still replied, "nothing." He leaned over and kissed Crutchie gently on the forehead, injecting the kiss with every emotion, every want, every need, he couldn't yet express.

Crutchie laughed lightly and leaned in to kiss Jack back on the sensitive skin of his neck, then closed his eyes again and settled back against Jack's shoulder. In the dim, colorful morning light stretching above them, the kisses seemed like a promise to Jack, a promise to share and to learn and to become, for each other, everything.


End file.
